CONVERSATIONS IN TEXT : ALY LLOYD
- sixteen online
- Sep 2
- 16 min read
For the second instalment of our series, we caught up with Sixteen Gallery Online Collective member Aly Lloyd for a chat and a look around her studio.
To be honest, it was such a great conversation, we found it hard to pick out the best bits! But here’s a peek into the processes and ideas behind Aly’s practice, through a snapshot of that conversation. We jump in with Arthur talking about Aly’s piece Apricity.
AOS : So Apricity, that’s painted? It's amazing, there are real blended elements, mixed with very sharp detail.
AL : That's originally painted, yeah. These were all about visual opposites. So it's cold and warm tones, opposing colours, but there's also the opposites of abstraction and fine detail. So I'm trying to create a balance and a harmony in it. What I'm doing is playing with perception all the time. That's the really interesting thing for me. I did start studying psychology, and I didn't go down an art route.
AOS : And you feel that influences your work?
AL : Yeah. Because I think I'm just playing with psychological aspects of seeing, all the time. It intrigues me, and then you see that it intrigues people when they look at the work as well.
AOS : Do you feel it's more of an analysis of your own mind, or are you trying to capture an emotional aspect from your subject?
AL : It's me, I think. Or it's something that resonates with me in an image that I find. So I use a lot of images from contemporary culture and social media. Like music videos stills, and things like that. But I'm not actually always that interested in the image; it's not really about that. It's a mood or a feeling, and then it's reframing it through my lens, essentially. So I tell people when they come in here, they're not portraits. I'm abstracting them and reframing them.
EC : It doesn't matter who they are, it's just something to play with, something to manipulate. Just a face.
AL : Yeah. And I'm very drawn to female imagery, I think part of it is identity exploration. But also, I've worked in the fashion industry for 10 years, and I think that language is really in my head. I tend to realise with hindsight what's got into a piece. I can work quite intuitively, and then I look back and I'm like, oh. So, with the black and white series, for example, I started working at Chanel at the time, and I was surrounded by imagery all day, and I was doing a lot of graphic design and communicating information. And so that imagery was just in my head all the time. So they're quite fashion-influenced.
AOS : Do you try to bring a narrative into the work, or is it simply the visual in itself? Are you trying to tell a story, beyond it?
AL : I think part of the story is kind of how I process things. I'm showing what I see, essentially. So I'm neurodiverse, I'm autistic. And so you see the sensory intensity come through the work. Everything's very structured and deconstructed. So there's a bit of a narrative around that. And I'm really drawn to processing visually the things that I feel or see. I always say that speaking isn't my first language. It's not my native language. This is. Because I'm much more able to express ideas and thoughts visually. So this is what it looks like.
EC : Do you find colour is an intuitive process, or do you sit and think really structurally about what colours you're using?
AL : I try and leave it to my intuition. I don't know — there's definitely a load of subconscious stuff.
AOS : So you haven't started thinking, okay, I'm going to do these four colours because I want to influence certain things?
AL : No. Although my process is often different. For example, I've recently finished some red ones, which I sent to Elysium Gallery in Swansea. And they're really looking at motion blur.
AOS : Oh, wow. This feather edge must just take you forever.
AL : Yeah. I was getting really frustrated. So, the black and the red are so hard to create a line.. So, it was my first use of image transfer. I did image transfer on the very edge of each one, and then and then I blended it. And I quite liked that, it's taking the merging of digital and painting even further. It actually inspired then making these (transfer prints -- see below).. That's why I worked out the image transfer process, because I was so frustrated.
But anyway, these red ones, I saw in a dream. It's weird, but I saw so intensely those exact shades of red. And I was walking past, and I look back, and the black was really intensely shimmery. I had to recreate that. So I spent a lot on really expensive glitter - you can't see it in the photo sadly. It's really intensely shimmering and you can't see it when you look straight at it, but as you pass you see it's really glittery.
So, sometimes the colour comes first. And I feel like they have to look like that. I don't know, but I think these look a bit like Instagram posts in the composition of them, which I think is maybe social media going into my head.
EC : You have a great eye for colour.
AL : I think so, and composition. Quite often, they start with digital designs or drafts. They'll start with imagery or patterns that I found. I take images when I'm walking on the street, or sometimes patterns in nature, but quite often graphic patterns that I come across online. I'll screenshot things on my phone all the time. Then I build the images into layers, and I play with different ways of blending them with digital software.
AOS : Is there a cut-off for you, over a period of time? I draw on things that I saved years ago. Is that the same for you, or do you think, no, that was old me, this is new me?
AL : So I've started to work on something new, which is these image transfers with hand-painted elements over them. Basically, I make so many designs, and I can't get them down fast enough. And by the time I go back to them, they don't represent my thinking any more! So I really wanted a way to still create them. I don't like that they just sit on a laptop and no one ever sees them. And even if they're not going to be one of my major pieces, or it's not something I'm super resonating with now, I still want it to be an idea that gets made physical. So I've started playing around with this technique to help me get things down. They're basically the original digital images, but then image-transferred onto a canvas. So they're super quick; they take about five minutes to print. And then I have bits over the top so that they have a more painterly feel because I'm always drawing that line between what feels digital and what feels handmade.
EC : So it's really playful?
AL : Yeah, it's really playful and fun. Because you can get a bit in your head about how things need to be a certain way. When you've spent a long time on a painting, it's like it needs to have a certain outcome, it needs to feel a certain way, but these are just fun. And sometimes these are really resonating with people, which is great. But it's just a super playful and stress-free way of getting those images down. So that will probably form part of a new body of work. I think having all those ideas is an important part of my process, and I just wasn't having the time to paint them. My mind moves faster than my ability to paint.
AOS : I think that's perfectly justifiable — you're saying that you're using the tools that are available to you to create images you need to create at the speed you need to create them. I love screen printing for that same reason.
AL : I think I was feeling a bit of a sense of urgency about: how can I solve this problem? And I thought, there must be a method that exists that I don't need to go out and buy a load of kit for. Because if this is going to cost me loads of money, it can put pressure on having to make something of it. So that was why I went for this method. You just put a solution on canvas, and then you print on this special acetate, and you print it. And then within about two or three minutes, you have an image. It's so much fun. And actually, it's a one-off print, every one will be different. I made multiple of them so I can do this slightly Warhol vibe by repeating the image. I sort of want them to feel like paintings as well. I want to create a balance.
AOS : I think that's the beauty of this, once you find out that it's a painting, it adds this additional layer of complexity and kudos. Sometimes people have the opinion that digital work feels throwaway.
AL : Yeah, that's the essence of these. I don't want them to feel that way. They're as important as anything else I've made; it's just a different medium. And I kind of want us to move on from that. We're in a different era now; this counts as art! But that's not really a new concept, that's why I like things like Pop Art, it really popularised things like that. I think these quick printing techniques can make it really accessible, but that doesn't make it throwaway. They should also be serious works of art in their own right.
AOS : Do you have a good amount of time experimenting?
AL : Yes, I spend quite a lot of time experimenting, but I try and hold on to the moment where your brain goes, 'oh, I like that', because I don't think that I should move on from that - That's the moment when I should create that piece.
AOS : I love that. That's a great mentality. And you create beautifully separate images, but they all feel very you. My work doesn't feel very me, and it's something I'm wrestling with now, this idea that it doesn't feel like my voice. Do you feel that all this is you?
AL : This is absolutely me. It's everything that I think and process and see and feel all on a canvas.
AOS : There does feel like a development. You've got this theme of sort of playing with your perception of what's digital and what's not. There are still some of the elements like the blur and the fine lines, but then it does feel like you're pulling in a direction, and you're exploring a new avenue.
AL : At one point, I was really trying to understand what makes a picture look digital, because you will be able to recreate that by hand, but what is it? I was exploring in these ones. They were smaller, and I was spending obsessive amounts of time making them, trying to understand why something looks digital. That's what I was pushing really far at that point. Whereas now, I feel like I've got that skill, I can move on and play with it more in different ways.
AOS : So you're not afraid to experiment during the process? So you plan it out a lot, but then in the moment, go with it.
AL : The way that I work is that it's quite planned by the time I'm making it. Most of the work is done, and the painting is like a meditative process.
EC : Are you able to get in the flow because the idea is already fully formulated?
AL : Yes. It's not completely linear like that; I do go back and forth between the digital image and my painting. So I've changed colours, or tested what it looks like if I make a pixelated effect, it might not be on the original reference image, but I change things as I go. I'm really experimental — that's why I quite like using acrylic paint. If I have to wait three weeks for the paint to dry. That wouldn't work for me
AOS : That surprises me, with some of the subtle colours that you've got, because I've always really struggled to get the shades that you get with the acrylic paint.
AL : Well, that's experimentation, for sure. I just learn from each piece I do. I've got better at understanding how to work with acrylic paint now. And also I paint on my wall and let it dry, so I can see how the paint will be, and I know to make it a bit lighter because it'll dry darker and such. It's just learning different skills.
AOS : Understanding your medium. I think that comes through experimentation and playing around, and making lots of work. That's something a lot of artists don't seem to do; they don't seem to make enough work.
AL : So that's really my focus this year, I'm trying to actively do less outreach stuff, and I'm trying to make more work. That's the full focus of this year. (I have just sent off six pieces to an exhibition, so that's not going particularly well.) I find it hard not to search for opportunities all the time, especially when you're a self-taught artist. You feel like you need to be really visible all the time. But I feel like it's really necessary for me now to pull it back for a minute and zoom in on the work. Give myself more time than I need so I don't feel so rushed, like I need to do this, I need to do this. Give me more space to see what comes out naturally. And I think that outcome will be interesting. I don't know what it will look like.. I think that'll be good.
AOS : Do you use other mediums other than paint? Because there are some of these that it looks like you used pencil marks.
AL : I have used pencil marks on that. Also, spray paint. So, how I created that one was using vinyl transfers. I cut out stencils to create shapes, and very carefully spray-painted over the top. I'd already painted this pattern, so I was really careful. It had taken a month! I was trying to get it so it looked like everything radiated out from the figure. It's kind of bringing her to the centre.
And then I used pencil on this. I was trying to create —again, it's just very experimental— a texture of a screen flicker gradient on this piece, like it's fading away. And the pencil seemed to sit on the top of the rough canvas; it just seemed to work.
AOS : Do you think you'll return to things like that, or are you sort of very much in a zone with paint and exploring? Because it feels like you push a medium's ability to the max, like you want to try and get the most out of each material?
AL : So I think at the minute, I'm in a period where I'm really just pushing acrylic paint and what I can do with it.
AOS : Until you think, I've done it all now. I need to get different challenges.
AL : I have done some oil painting. I did one piece fully in oil, it was another social media still from reel, I did it in oil because it looked really cloudy and creamy, and it almost had a kind of Old Master's feel, but with really bright colours. I wanted to try and create that, and I thought it needed oil because it can create a much more cloudy texture. So I do try it.
AOS : You get colours that I've never seen done with acrylic, that I would only think that you could get with oils. You've got the patience of a saint, I think.
AL : I mean, you can push acrylic really far, especially with mediums. I don't know oil paint well enough to be able to say that you could do it. I know lots of people rate oil for its ability to have endless possibilities, but I'm really finding that with acrylic. And if I find the ends of its possibilities, I'll probably move on.
EC : I think that's just knowing what effect you want, or what you want something to look like, and then thinking, so what do I use that gets me there? If you can do it in acrylic, well then, this is the right medium.
AL : It always starts with what image I want to create. The reason I started with acrylic was because I couldn't do that in oil; I would be there for months and months. I'd have to wait for each thing. I use Frog Tape to get the really straight lines, and I can't wait for it to dry, it needs to be acrylic.
EC : How long does a piece, in general, take you?
AL : So, like, two minutes? (points at the prints!) But generally, if I do them in one sitting, it can be like a week or two. Quite fast if I get really into something. Like Apricity, that I probably did over about two and a half weeks.
AOS : I think that's so fast.
EC : Do you do it in a big stint? Will you sit down and do it in three-hour or six-hour blocks?
AL : Ten hours probably. I'll forget to eat or drink! But then, more often than not, I sit here quite a while, and I keep going back and forth to it.
EC : Do you work on things simultaneously, even if they're not quick ones, do you have multiple things on the go?
AL : Yeah, and because I kind of have the stages in my head, so I cut down the dominant colour and then I draw out basic shapes, etc, and then that might feel like a nice moment to go do something else. I know what's coming next, I'm not lost in a process. But that one took me about a year. I kept referring to it as the forgotten one because I had it to the side. But then it got shortlisted for a prize. It's always the forgotten ones.
AOS : Do you enter many competitions?
AL : Yes. Well, I do, but that's what I'm trying to do less this year: open calls and applying for things. I've done it a lot, generally, because I just feel like it's the only way I can get any exposure for myself when I don't really have any connections. I haven't been to art school or anything like that. So, yeah, I've gone through phases of trying to do quite a lot of that. And, you know, you get very used to rejection, right? Like 90% of them, you get rejection from. Then every now and then, one of them comes through. I think I've learnt as well, though, that your work doesn't fit everywhere, and that's okay.
EC : Yeah, sometimes it's really easy to think: I'm not good enough, I just shouldn't be doing any of this. But it's realising, this just isn't the right thing for you, and working out which ones are right.
AL : Yes. This was my partner's advice: not everyone's going to like your work, and actually, only about X amount of the whole population is going to like your work. And that's probably about one person a day who walks in here, and that's the reality. That's what art is. And what it should be; it doesn't mean that your work isn't good or viable.
AOS : But it's putting yourself out there enough so that that one person gets to see it, and having multiple touch points, so that people can find you.
AL : This is good psychology again. When I did the Other Art Fair last year, they put Lost and Found where people saw it right as they walked in. I've never sold so many prints of a piece. Because people were familiar with the image. Honestly, everyone who came down was like: "Oh, I just saw that". I almost sold out the whole print series in a couple of days, which is quite good for an independent artist! But it's the familiarity, the more you can get your images in front of people.
I've done so many different Open Calls before. I did one at one gallery where I didn't really end up feeling like it was my scene; there were a lot of different types of work, and I felt like my work maybe stuck out a bit. It was quite contemporary and bold for that particular exhibition. But then a lady came in here last week, and she said she saw my work there - three years earlier. So I think even when it feels like you've got nothing out of your hard work, the leads in this industry can just be slow burns. That's what I tell myself anyway!
AOS : Yeah. No, that's great advice. And I think that's something that we want to talk to artists about, understanding that it's all compounding. Every little bit that you do is either a bit more practice, getting stronger with technique, or it's getting your name out there. Every person might not buy from this exhibition, but they might buy something two or three years down the line, because they've recognised your work, and it just wasn't the right time.
AL : Yeah. It's quite hard to keep that faith, I think, especially when it's quite a personal practice. But I am starting to see a payoff now, which is nice.
Actually, to submit for an open call a couple of years ago, I made a painting — the biggest painting I've ever done — in four days. To be honest, I was partly intrigued just to see how fast I could do it.
AOS : You didn't start it four days before?
AL : Yeah. It got rejected! But, you know what, I got so many positives out of the piece.
EC : And that's the biggest piece you've done? Would you work that size again? Is there a reason you don't normally?
AL : Well, I think I just wanted to know that I could do something a bit bigger. Maybe if I had a gallery that it was going to go to, but I don't have the space. And I just don't think I've built up enough of a brand identity, personally, yet. People aren't going to buy something that big, because it has to be such a high price point. I just don't want loads of stuff in storage. I mostly do things because I want to know that I can, or I'm building skills. But I don't think I need to work repeatedly at that size if I'll just end up having them here. I think maybe after this period of development, then possibly.
EC : I think it's smart, working at a size that you feel comfortable with, and having that understanding that if you do something big, you're going to have to put a big price on it, and knowing if that's going to work.
AL : Yeah, for my collector base, it's a difficult sell. It's not impossible, but it's a difficult sell independently, while you're still growing a profile. You have to put a certain price point on something big, otherwise you devalue yourself. So it's just quite tricky to make work that size for me at the minute. I'm sure if something takes my fancy and I will just quickly buy a huge canvas.
AOS : Do you ever get rid of your work?
AL : No. I had a really nice moment the other day where I realised I've actually sold them all. Over time. So when I feel like everything's going really slowly or like I've lost faith, actually — except the new ones in exhibition in Swansea at the moment — they've all gone.
We had such a great chat with Aly, and we think she shared some absolute gems of knowledge, and showed a deep understanding of her practice, which could be so useful to many artists. So we hope you enjoyed that excerpt and gained a little learning or inspiration yourselves.
You can find more of Aly's work on her portfolio, as well as links to shop her paintings and prints, and where to keep up with her on social media.
Got any burning questions? Drop them in the comments. We'd love to hear your thoughts!
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